Background
I have some cod liver oil to take a supplement, but the taste is sufficiently unpleasant that I am not sure how to finish the bottle off. In the past, I have found emulsified cod liver oil fully tolerable, even pleasant, and I would like to know if it would be simple to make a similar product at home from raw cod liver oil.
The Twinlab website states that the product is
emulsified with natural soy lecithin
and apple pectin making the EPA and
DHA more readily available to the
digestive system for better
absorption, assimilation and
utilization.
And the ingredients are (in order):
- water
- cod liver ois
- glycerin
- sorbitol
- soy lecithin
- cellulose
- orange flavors
- tragacanth gum resin
- apple pectin
- alpha tocopherol
- ascorbyl palmitate
- beta carotene
But it is not clear to me which of these ingredients are required, what quantities, or how to blend them.
Questions
- Is there a way that I can emulsify cod liver at home in such a way that will accomplish this?
- Are there any other suggestions for how to consume cod-liver oil without having either the initial taste or the residual flavor in the mouth and breath?
Best Answer
This should be no problem. It is basically the same process as making a vinaigrette, only using water instead of vinegar, and lecithin instead of mustard. Here's how I would go about it. Let's say you have 1 cup of oil to emulsify. Go buy soy lecithin at a health food store. Take 1/2 cup of water, and dissolve 1 teaspoon of the soy lecithin in it. Use a blender or immersion blender. With the blender running, slowly drizzle in the cod liver oil. It will emulsify - the oil will disperse into ultra-fine droplets in the water, and presumably the taste will be both diluted and somewhat hidden by being locked up in little droplets. If this doesn't work, you just need more lecithin, so dissolve a bit more in another 1/4 cup of water and drizzle the whole thing back in to the blender.
Naturally you'll want to take 50% more, since the oil is now only 2/3 of the volume.
Those other ingredients are for flavor and anti-oxidation, not needed for the basic thing you are trying to accomplish.